Women happy to hire escort

Women who complain it is impossible to find a suitable partner are prepared to pay for a night of passion.

That is the conclusion of a new survey about paid-for sex which apparently reveals a startling change in attitude. In it, 42 per cent of women say they would hire an escort for the evening, compared with 36 per cent of men. Overall, 48 per cent of people polled said they felt there was nothing wrong with paying for sex.

The findings, from online banking company Egg, show that of those surveyed, nine per cent of men and one per cent of women have paid for sex, while more than 20 per cent said they knew somebody who had. This, says Egg, shows we are living in an age of a "greater sense of liberation and living for the moment".

Attitudes were most liberal in Wales, where six in 10 said there was nothing wrong with paid-for sex, while only 36 per cent of Scots said it was all right. Fourteen per cent of Britons said they thought a date would be obliged to sleep with them if they had paid a lot of money to wine and dine them.

Many also said they would be happy to pay their favourite celebrity for an evening between the sheets.

More than 20 per cent of men said they would pay at least £5,000 for a night with Jennifer Aniston, while 27 per cent of women said they would spend the same amount to be with her husband, Brad Pitt.

Egg spokesman Nick Cross said: "These findings go to show that many of us are far less bothered about what others think and like to set our own rules.

"There's a greater sense of liberation and living for the moment. We're much more likely to go out and get what we want in life - and for some of us that even includes paying for love or sex."

This means the trend for women to hire "walkers" - presentable looking men to escort them to dinner or the theatre - seems to have been overtaken by the desire for something more.

A sample of 1,000 adults aged 18 to 65-plus were questioned for the survey, undertaken by ICM Research.